In our simulations, dissipation will occur mainly in two places.
The first one is associated with the (inspiraling) motion of the stars.
Just as for an isolated rotating pulsar, the plasma surrounding it can only
co-rotate up until the light cylinder. This is the distance from the
rotation axis, beyond which the corotational velocity \(v = \Omega \varpi \) 
would exceed the speed of light, i.e. \(\varpi _{\rm LC} = c / \Omega \) .
Beyond this point, the field lines will have to open up, separating them by
a strong current sheet [1]}. Since current sheets are the sole point of
magnetic dissipation, the continued presence of the orbital current sheet
will cause a constant amount of net dissipation, see e.g. [2]}.
This can be seen in Fig.
REF , which shows the local energy dissipation rate
\(J_i E^i\)  in the orbital plane for model A30. For reference,
we estimate that the orbital
sheet is locally dissipating \(\simeq 10^{29}\,\left(B/10^{12}\rm G\right)^2\, \rm erg/\left(s\,cm^3\right) \). During a flaring
event (top of Fig. REF ), the trailing current sheet of
the flare and its interaction with the orbital current sheet, cause
additional dissipation (in the trailing current sheet). In this
specific model, A30, locally up to 100-times larger than in the
orbital current sheet. We emphasize that in the absence of a more realistic
Ohm's law prescription
[3]} the precise numbers should be considered approximate.
